Through the Roof

Things were going well with my Primaries this morning in Sunday school -- it was one of those lessons that I knew I could get all my kids involved in and really be able to drive home the point of the Bible story. We started with an application activity using wet paper towels and rocks on which they'd written burdens people have to carry and discussed how heavy those can be for people to deal with. We talked about friends helping friends with their problems. (NOTE: The super paper towels today are as strong as the commercials say they are! It began to look like they were going to hold up to all the rocks (problems) we'd been piling on (and NOT tear under the weight of too many "burdens" -- should have practiced that one ahead of time!)

We then read the passage in Luke 5 about the four friends who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus. The boys and girls were connecting well -- we discussed what it would feel like to be the man as they carried him through Capernaum -- what must have been in the friend's minds as they hurried their friend to Jesus and what the owners of the house must have thought when the guys started dismantling their roof.

Tori volunteered to be the paralyzed man as we acted it out -- she loved the idea of being wrapped up in a blanket, carried by four of us and hoisted up on the roof of our makeshift "house" (two tables pushed together).
Once we got her on one of the tables and I reminded them it was the house where Jesus was down below healing the sick, I asked them how we were going to get her down to see Jesus -- were we just going to toss her down? (No, the men in the story let their friend down with ropes, I added) Tori was poised on one table and the students pulled the other table away to make room for us to let her down and at that very instant the table collapsed and the legs fell off with the loudest racket -- the kids were stunned!!! Without missing a beat Luke yelled "Oh, no --you just smashed Jesus!"

Fran and I lost it! We're not quite sure what they took home from the lesson from that time on. These kids give me so much joy and I'd like to think they make God grin . . .